Institute of Advanced Studies

Black Holes and Galaxies

by Professor Reinhard Genzel, Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, FRG & Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, USA

Evidence has been accumulating for several decades that many galaxies harbour central mass concentrations that may be in the form of black holes with masses between a few million to a few billion time the mass of the Sun.

In this leture Professor Genzel discussed measurements over the last two decades, employing high resolution infrared and radio imaging and spectroscopy on large ground-based telescopes that prove the existence of such a massive black hole in the centre of our Milky Way, beyond any reasonable doubt. These data also provide key insights into its properties and environment. Future interferometric studies of the Galactic Centre black hole promise to be able to test gravity in its strong field limit. He also briefly summarized the cosmological evolution of massive black holes.

Reinhard Genzel studied physics at Bonn University and received his doctorate in radioastronomy at the Max Planck Institute, Bonn in 1978.  Other positions have included: Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (1978-1980), Associate professor of Physics and Associate Research Astronomer, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of Californai, Berkeley (1981-1985), Visiting Professor of Physics UC Berkeley (1985-1986), Director and Scientific member at the Max Plank Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (since 1986), Honorary professor, Munich University (since 1988), Full Professor of Physics, UC Berkeley (since 1999).